SC - pumpkin pie redaction

[Dan Gillespie]

To add to all the tantalizing recipes that folks have offered from their
holiday cooking experiments, here's one that I made for an appetizer for
Thanksgiving dinner from the 1607 Arte de Cozina.

On an English empanada of pumpkin

        Take the pumpkin & clean it very well, & cast it to cook, & after it
is well cooked, take & cast it  on a board; & then drain off any water, that
it remains quite dry, & take parsely & mint & onion in large quantity, & fry
it all in fat, & chopped garlic, very well fried, & cast it all in the
pumpkin after you have it well dried, mixing everything, the onion with the
others, parsley & mint & chopped garlic, mixing everything with the pumpkin;
& take verjuice & spices, clove, pepper & saffron, & nutmeg well ground, &
salt, because pumpkin is by its nature insipid, & when you have seasoned it
well with the spices & verjuice; so that it is sweet & sour, take the eggs
that seem right to you, & beat them very well, & cast them to the pumpkin, &
put it in a casserole, & put it on the fire, & put fire below & on top, as
you would cook a sauce (of pounded nuts & spices) & take & make "french
toast" (bread dipped in egg or wine with sugar & fried in oil), & have your
dough kneaded with fat & eggs & white wine & sugar & let the dough be fine,
& then stretch your dough, & put your chunks & strips of bacon, & marrow &
yolks, & cast enough sourness, & make your pastry, & cook it with a small
fire, & give it a crust of eggs & sugar, as with meat pastries.  And it is a
highly regarded dish, if you know how to make it.

Pumpkin Pie Turnovers 

Take 1/2 a large butternut squash, & peel, seed & chop it in cubes; about 3
cups cubed squash.   Boil the squash  in a little water for 10 minutes, or
til tender.  Drain it in a colander.  Saute 4 medium onions in 2 Tbsp of
olive oil, til they are browned.  Add 3 cloves of minced garlic & saute with
the onions for a few minutes.  Add 3 Tbsp minced parsley & 1 Tbsp finely
minced fresh mint leaves & saute a minute longer.  Add onion mixture to the
pumpkin.  Stir in 1/4 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp verjuice (or to taste), 1/2 tsp
pepper, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, & 2 tsp honey (to make it sweet &
sour).  Beat 2 eggs & mix this into the pumpkin mixture & stir it all well.
The pumpkin should be mostly mashed.
       I made a plain pie crust recipe to make individual turnovers.  I cut
squares about 4 or 5 inches on a side & filled with 2 or 3 teaspoons of the
filling.  I put a small piece of turkey ham on top of the pumpkin filling;
cooked bacon or ham would also work.  Moisten 2 edges of the square with
water, fold the extra dough over & seal the edges to form a triangle. Bake
at 400 for 10 or 15 minutes.  I made about one dozen turnovers & used the
rest of the filling to make a one crust pie.  Overall, it took about 3 or 4
single batches of pie dough to make all of the pastries.
        I was not quite sure what the pieces french toast were supposed to
do in the recipe, so left that out.  I also skipped the sugar coating on the
pastries, as this was for a mundane dinner.  Similarly, the marrow slices &
egg yolks were omitted.  I am not sure whether the egg yolks are raw or
cooked.  Sliced egg yolk might be decorative & would seem to go along with
the sliced bone marrow.  I did not feel taht it was necessary to prebake the
pumpkin & egg  mixture before inserting it in the pie dough.
        All thoughts on this redaction are most welcome.
                                        Antoine 
Dan Gillespie
dangilsp at intrepid.net
Dan_Gillespie at usgs.gov
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA 

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